Urban indigenous identities: contemporary autonarratives mediated on Instagram

Abstract

The article seeks to investigate how indigenous young people living in urban contexts use Instagram profiles to give new meaning to their identities through self-narratives, predominantly imagery, in a context of digital culture and communication. The research is linked to the Research Group on Imaging Processes and to the Amazonian Images research, coordinated by its supervisory professor. As an empirical object, we have selected profiles of four young people representing three Brazilian indigenous ethnic groups, residing in different regions of the country. Content analysis and discourse analysis from the digital tracks of these young people on the platform are used as a methodological procedure. At the end, the text identifies the artistic manifestations and the formation of collaborative networks in digital media as expressions of resistance, a clamor for recognition and a fight against the invisibility of the conditions of these young people who see themselves updating the identification processes in the encounter with the Western capitalist and white culture.